Banana Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy eclipse day!! Doing anything special for the big event? Did you get your hands on those coveted eclipse glasses? My answers: no and no. I’m so boring. I’ll just stay inside with the pups and feel weird for those few minutes when it’s a little dark out at 2:30 in the afternoon.

Come back and tell me how cool it was to see, ok?

And one more thing before I get to the recipe chitchat. Will you just look how cute this is?! Jude has been very protective and clingy my whole pregnancy, especially these past couple months. He always lays his head on my lap when I’m on the couch. Heart = MELTING.

Let’s get into the good stuff. I’ve been meaning to bake my favorite banana cake as a banana layer cake for the past year. Do you remember when I shared my love/obsession for this banana cake? You know, the cake recipe I stalked Kevin’s cousin for like a complete lunatic? Turns out, it’s just as moist/perfect/unbelievable as a layer cake too.

Baking the banana cake as a layer cake changes the frosting to cake ratio. More layers = more frosting in each bite. That’s certainly something we’re all OK with. Also, aren’t layer cakes a bit more fancy? I don’t know about you, but I always feel more accomplished/fancier serving a layer cake vs a sheet cake.

La-di-da look at my tall masterpiece sort of thing.

But we’re not only changing the shape and presentation of the banana cake today. We’re also serving it up with THE BEST FROSTING TO EVER HIT YOUR LIPS. Dramatic? Who… me?

And the frosting is what I really want to focus on today.

I’m not sure why I waited 32 years to make brown butter cream cheese frosting (??) and hopefully you won’t wait another second either. It’s everything you love about cream cheese frosting– tangy and sweet, but not as tooth-decaying sweet as buttercream. Creamy, thick, silky, smooth. Yep, all of the above. But this version has brown butter hiding inside. Those specks of nutty toasty buttery goodness bring cream cheese frosting up about 700 notches on the delicious scale. Do you want to upgrade a great dessert into the mega-watt billionaire of desserts? Add brown butter.

Time saving tip!!! Browning the butter and refrigerating it until solid is a whole extra step, but do this before you even start the cake. By the time the baked cake has cooled, the brown butter is ready to be whipped into frosting.

Have I mentioned how creamy this stuff is???

In an effort to be hip and cool (and I realize typing/saying “hip and cool” means I’m neither), I went with the trendy naked cake style! I piled the frosting inside and on top of the cake, but left the edges a bit… nude. And I really like how it turned out!

I brought this cake over to our friends and it was like I gave them a block of gold or something. (Told you layer cakes are the fanciest!!) They were impressed by the cake’s flavor and texture, but kept enthusiastically raving about the combination of banana/cinnamon/cream cheese frosting/brown butter.

Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the eggs and the vanilla. Beat on medium-high speed until combined, then beat in the mashed bananas. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions alternating with the buttermilk and mixing each addition just until incorporated. Do not overmix. The batter will be slightly thick. A few lumps is OK.

Divide batter evenly between 3 pans. Bake for 22-26 minutes. Baking times vary, so keep an eye on yours. The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the cakes from the oven and set on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely in the pan.

Make the frosting: Slice the butter up into pieces and place in a light-colored skillet. (Light colored helps you determine when the butter begins browning.) Melt the butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once melted, the butter will begin to foam. Keep stirring occasionally. After 5-8 minutes, the butter will begin browning-- you'll notice lightly browned specks begin to form at the bottom of the pan and it will have a nutty aroma. See photo above for a visual. Once browned, remove from heat, and immediately pour into a heat-proof bowl. Refrigerate until solid.

In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the solid brown butter on high speed until creamed. Add the cream cheese and beat on high speed until combined, smooth, and creamy. Add 4 cups confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then switch to high speed and beat for 2 minutes. If you want the frosting a little thicker, add the extra 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar.

Assemble and frost: Place 1 cake layer on your cake stand or serving plate. Evenly cover the top with frosting. Top with 2nd layer and evenly cover the top with frosting. Finish with the third cake layer and spread the remaining frosting all over the top and sides. Garnish with chopped nuts. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before slicing or else the cake may gently fall apart as you cut.

Cover leftover cake tightly and store in the refrigerator for 5 days.

Make ahead tip: Prepare cake through step 7. Wrap the individual baked cake layers tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze up to 3 months. Bring to room temperature, make the frosting, frost, and serve. Frosted cake freezes well, up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, bring to room temperature or serve cold.

Hi Sally! I’ve been a long-time lurker of your site but have yet to make any of your recipes until last night when I made this cake. And oh-my-goodness! It was divine. So moist, tender, and flavorful! The frosting was unbelievable — when I tasted it I swore I would never make regular cream cheese frosting again. Thank you for such an outstanding recipe! This one is definitely a keeper.

Hi Sally!
I’ve been reading your recipes & watching your videos for about 6 mos. now. Had not tried making any cake from scratch until Christmas 2016, when I finally found a recipe for a true Italian Rum Cake. That is & has remained my favorite for the past 53 years (don’t want to give away my age,tee hee), but you can tell that I was “mature” when I tried baking from scratch! Lol!! Of course, I couldn’t pick an easy cake, for my 1st, but since reading your blog & watching your videos, I now realize how I could have made that cake a LOT easier on myself!! Even now, I shy away from anything that uses the words “stand mixer” or “paddle or whisk attached “. I only have a hand mixer with beaters & had to borrow a neighbors stand mixer for the rum cake. I HATE to have to borrow ANYTHING from anyone! I live on a $1231/mo. Social Security check & my rent has now gone over 50PCT of that. So now after paying rent, electric, cable, life insurance, renter’s insurance, & the only charge acct I have, I’m lucky to have $230 for everything else needed to live on, so there is NO way I could afford to buy a stand mixer of any reasonable quality which is why winning that stand mixer would REALLY be a God send!!! I don’t mean to sound like I’m “poor mouthing” it, just telling you the facts. I will be sending you the recipe for the rum cake via email so that you may be able to offer your welcomed & helpful tips & tricks.
Now, as for this banana cake, can I make the frosting with my hand mixer & beaters? That frosting looks & sounds delicious & the entire literally made my mouth water. Maybe, I should have put a bib on before reading it!! Also, have you ever worked with “Russian” decorating tips? A neighbor, here in our 55+ complex inherited them when her aunt passed. Since she already had a set, I became their new proud owner. I know that I certainly can’t make the icing the icing stiff enough needed for these tips with my little hand mixer!! Since my youngest is almost 35 & lives in Australia & the closest of the other 2 is almost 400 miles away is a nurse manager at a very large hospital, as well as a clinical instructor, well let’s just say I feel lucky to see them a couple of days a year, i have REALLY wanted to take up baking & decorating cakes!! I think it would be a “sweet” use of all the extra time I have these days, which is where YOU cime in. Of all the MANY blogs & shows I have read & watched, YOURS is my favorite!! The way your recipes & directions are wrtten & the language you use make it seem like we are at the kitchen tables sharing a cup of coffee & recipes. It seems you explain anything I don’t understand, as if I just asked to to do so. Your videos are phenomenal & it is FUN to watch you work. I am trying, with your help to become a “self taught” baker & decorator. Suffice it to say YOU can teach an “older” baker (to be) new tricks!! Ha ha ha! I am absolutely in AWE of the way your site has been re-developed!! I loved.the way it was & am now “head over heels” in love with it❤. I realize this.is a LOOONG question, comment, but I promise to not make any other comments comments this week, during the giveaway. Don’t know if each comment is counted as an entry or not, however; if so just the length of this one should count exactly as 1 (one) Lol! Seriously, I will email the recipe & directions for the Italian Rum Cake as I receved it with the directions I followed. Will also comment what I think about it after learning things from you. BTW, the cake turned out almost the way I remembered it & the residents,her that were lyckt to get a slice RAVED about it!! I say lucky because I lost count of the number people that came, requesting a slice, after hearing someone raving about it.
Thank you so very much, Sally, for answering my question & for the opportunity to win a MUCH needed a stand mixer.

Hi Sheri, I’m glad you found the blog! Italian Rum cake sounds delicious! You can certainly make the frosting for the banana cake (and any other frosting) with your hand mixer – I use mine all the time! Happy baking!

Is it possible to make this as a 2 layer (instead of 3 layer) cake? Can the cream cheese frosting recipe of the banana sheet cake on your site be substituted for the brown butter cream cheese frosting?

You would have to use 2/3 of the recipe. If you don’t want to do that math you can simply make cupcakes or a third layer to freeze for later out of the extra batter! And yes, you can certainly use cream cheese frosting 🙂

Hi Rachel, I have used the namaste organic gluten free flour blend, purchased from Costco, to make other banana cake recipes with much success. I haven’t tried it on this one yet. But you just swap out the flour 1:1 ratio. good luck!!

This cake was delicious and moist and my difficult to make. The frosting part was also delicious who knew how tasty brown butter could be!? But. It was way way too funny to frost the cake. I chilled it for a little bit not nearly long enough. When I put it on the cake it oozed out of the Center and became a bit of a mess. After chilling the cake in the freezer with the runny frosting for at least 20 minutes it held its shape better. Maybe my apartment was very hot but I’d recommend anyone making this to chill their frosting!! I’d make this again, I’d just chill the frosting before applying. Thanks for the recipes, want to try your strawberry cake next!

What other frostings would you recommend for this recipe please? I adore this cake recipe and am making it for a relative’s birthday, but they are allergic to cheese so I can’t use this particular frosting. Thanks!

I made this today because of all of the reviews and it was DELICIOUS! Perfect I’m every way and I wouldn’t change a thing.
It was a cake for my MIL ‘s birthday and she just loved the frosting!
Thank you so much!

Hi Sally. This cake looks absolutely wonderful, as do all your recipes. I have a question about tin sizes. I’m in the UK and our standard cake tin size is 8”, whereas in the US it seems to be 9”. To avoid complicated mathematical formula, I would be happy to use the ingredient amounts you use and make cupcakes with the leftover batter. My query is: how much batter should I put in each tin, i.e. should I fill up to half or two thirds of the tin? Any help you can give me would be much appreciated.

Hi Sue! This is a great question. I recommend filling the 8-inch cake pans halfway, then using any leftover batter for cupcakes. The cupcakes take about 18-20 minutes, but I’m unsure about the exact time for the cake layers. Use a toothpick to test for doneness.

Hi Sally,
I want to bake one cake instead of three but I’m not sure about baking time, 55- 60 min or more?
Loooooove your blog and adore every single recipe of yours, you are my STAR
Best wishes
Margaret

Made this cake last week and it was delicious! I made it with cinnamon frosting instead of this one, so I can’t comment on the frosting but the cake was great. And I made it gluten free. My only issue was that this only made two layers. I have no idea how people made it into three. I was excited to make two layers and cupcakes (for myself) but it didn’t work out. Bummer, since I had to wait until the cake cutting the next day.

Hi. Thanks for the recipe, Sally. I was looking for a banana cake recipe and found yours. It turned out very nicely and was easy to make. I did a few alterations in pan size due to necessity and it still worked well. I made the cake using 2 nos 11″ x 4″ x 3″ and 1 no 8 ” x 4″ x 3″ baking loaf tins since I did not have 3 9″ x 2″ round pans. I cut one loaf in half lengthwise to make 2 layers, and then again in half crosswise. I got 4 layers that way. I used only three layers to make a mini dessert to serve 4 persons. I made 1/2 of the frosting recipe. I froze the other two loaves for future use. I do believe though that next time I will need to reduce on the baking powder and/or soda since the pans are smaller because the cake cracked at later stages of baking (One of the baking blogs advised to cut down on one or the other when using smaller deeper pans). I have found cake pan sizes are often an issue when you don’t have the exact pan size called for baking powder/soda proportions in cake recipes are engineered for specific cake pan sizes and don’t always work out 100% when you change the pan size. I wonder if you can give some tips as to how to get the frosting to look so nice between the layers. IE, how do you determine how much frosting to put between layers so that it has that nice rounded effect when sandwich the layers?

Sounds like you have your cake pan sizes figured out, Jenn! For the frosting between the layers I just place a large amount in the center and use a spatula to spread it out to the sides – the 6th photo down shows me doing this! The amount/how thick you make it is totally up to you!

Any tips on how to get a nicely rising cake like yours? I never seem to get quite the height you do on your cakes and cannot figure out why. I follow the directions to a T – room temperature , mixing times. My baking powder and soda aren’t brand new but no more than a few months. Does the type of cake pan (material?) make a difference? I’ve started flouring them to give the cakes something to cling to as it rises but no luck. also, how do you avoid air bubbles in the cakes. Thank you!!

Hi Haley, you can experiment with different cake pans and see if that helps. I usually give my pans a few taps on the counter to release any air bubbles before going in the oven – but I found this link which provides some helpful information: https://www.kitchenhealssoul.com/large-holes-inside-of-cake/

Hi Sally
Love your site, and I have all your books.
I just finished making this recipe and since I didn’t have 3-8″or 3-9′ pans, I used 2-9″, and 2-6″, and pleased to report the two different layer cakes are “resting” in the fridge. BTW: frosting is delicious! I can attest to the taste of the cake batter, most pleasing;) One cake is for my son’s office and one for family, which leads me to this query. How do you store a layer cake, when it specifies wrapped? Do you have a special container, or a unique wrapping technique? If so, any tips would be helpful, and appreciated.
I will give an update on cake after we cut into it.
Thanks so much.

Hi Carol! Thank you so much for making this banana layer cake! No special tricks for storing– I simply wrap an assembled/frosted layer cake loosely in plastic wrap. The frosting will stick tot he plastic wrap a little bit and that’s, unfortunately, unavoidable with tall cakes!

Been making your recipes for a while now. My husband is a big fan of your fruit pizza cookie dessert. I make banana cakes often but never would have thought to make a browned butter frosting. It is AMAZING. Not sure I can make plain cream cheese frosting ever again. I did change it a bit. Used the whole two packages of cream cheese because I hate having half a package left over and because…well…cream cheese. I also used vanilla bean paste for half the vanilla extract, just because I love the bean paste. Oh, and added an extra cup of powdered sugar since I added the extra cream cheese. Great recipe. Keep sharing!

Hi Sally! Love this recipe! I’ve made it 3 times now and had a couple questions about the one I made recently:
1. I froze the cake layers overnight (before frosting) for the first time- I’ve never frozen cakes before. Even though I wrapped it twice in plastic wrap and then in foil, and left it on the counter to defrost without unwrapping the next morning, the cake turned extremely dense and completely lost the light/ crumbly texture of a cake. Do you know what I might’ve done wrong?
2. The colour of the cake layers was a sort of grey colour vs. your beautiful brown colour (I noticed after mashing the bananas they were grey in colour). Do you know why that might be?

Your help/ advice would be so appreciated! I can’t seem to find anything online as to what would’ve gone wrong in my cake freezing. Thanks so much in advance!!

Hi Beverly! I’m so glad you enjoy this banana cake recipe. Thank you for reporting back about it! And I’m happy to help answer your questions. So did you find that the cake that you froze was more dense than the cake you made previously (which you did not freeze)? Because the cake is going to be a little dense no matter what! I wonder if your bananas were more white than yellow? That would give your cake a beige/gray appearance. I don’t think it would have to do with freezing/thawing the cake.

Hi Sally! Thank you so much for your quick reply you are a life saver! Yes the bananas were white so that explains the color! For the freezing though, I did notice the cake I made before that I didn’t freeze was a completely different texture to the frozen one. The frozen one became very gummy and dense, there was essentially no crumb to it. Do you have any idea what I might’ve done wrong? I live in Thailand where it’s very humid, not sure if that has anything to do with it.

Hi Sally. I just received a request for a banana cake, so naturally I turned to your site!!! I am a tall cake person ( I like my cakes to be at least 4 1/2-5″ tall). I see that you make this cake in 3 layers, and that is perfect for me. Do you know if I will get a tall cake with a single recipe? Should I double for taller layers, although I wonder if the density with banana won’t rise more….Looking forward to trying this recipe and the amazing frosting that you have shown with!!!

Hi Sally,
Do you have any advice to avoid curdling of the batter? I make sure to have all ingredients on room temperature and add liquids very slowly.. still I often have curdled batter (also with your lemon cake). Not sure if it is the reason, but the cake also seems denser than on your pictures (especially the bottom part of the cake). Let me know if you have any advice!

Hi Zara! I’m unsure about the density issue– are you following the recipe closely? The batter looking curdled is completely normal. The room temperature ingredients are different textures, so there is bound to be some curdled looking batter with the solid/soft butter and liquid ingredients. It all comes together in the oven. 🙂

Hi Sally,
I can’t wait to try this recipe however I wanted to know if this frosting be colored to a shade of pink. I have been able to color cream cheese frosting just like we dye buttercream but not sure about brown butter cream cheese frosting. Thanks!

Reviews

This cake was delicious and moist and my difficult to make. The frosting part was also delicious who knew how tasty brown butter could be!? But. It was way way too funny to frost the cake. I chilled it for a little bit not nearly long enough. When I put it on the cake it oozed out of the Center and became a bit of a mess. After chilling the cake in the freezer with the runny frosting for at least 20 minutes it held its shape better. Maybe my apartment was very hot but I’d recommend anyone making this to chill their frosting!! I’d make this again, I’d just chill the frosting before applying. Thanks for the recipes, want to try your strawberry cake next!

I made this today because of all of the reviews and it was DELICIOUS! Perfect I’m every way and I wouldn’t change a thing.
It was a cake for my MIL ‘s birthday and she just loved the frosting!
Thank you so much!

Made this cake last week and it was delicious! I made it with cinnamon frosting instead of this one, so I can’t comment on the frosting but the cake was great. And I made it gluten free. My only issue was that this only made two layers. I have no idea how people made it into three. I was excited to make two layers and cupcakes (for myself) but it didn’t work out. Bummer, since I had to wait until the cake cutting the next day.

Questions

Hi Sally!
I’ve been reading your recipes & watching your videos for about 6 mos. now. Had not tried making any cake from scratch until Christmas 2016, when I finally found a recipe for a true Italian Rum Cake. That is & has remained my favorite for the past 53 years (don’t want to give away my age,tee hee), but you can tell that I was “mature” when I tried baking from scratch! Lol!! Of course, I couldn’t pick an easy cake, for my 1st, but since reading your blog & watching your videos, I now realize how I could have made that cake a LOT easier on myself!! Even now, I shy away from anything that uses the words “stand mixer” or “paddle or whisk attached “. I only have a hand mixer with beaters & had to borrow a neighbors stand mixer for the rum cake. I HATE to have to borrow ANYTHING from anyone! I live on a $1231/mo. Social Security check & my rent has now gone over 50PCT of that. So now after paying rent, electric, cable, life insurance, renter’s insurance, & the only charge acct I have, I’m lucky to have $230 for everything else needed to live on, so there is NO way I could afford to buy a stand mixer of any reasonable quality which is why winning that stand mixer would REALLY be a God send!!! I don’t mean to sound like I’m “poor mouthing” it, just telling you the facts. I will be sending you the recipe for the rum cake via email so that you may be able to offer your welcomed & helpful tips & tricks.
Now, as for this banana cake, can I make the frosting with my hand mixer & beaters? That frosting looks & sounds delicious & the entire literally made my mouth water. Maybe, I should have put a bib on before reading it!! Also, have you ever worked with “Russian” decorating tips? A neighbor, here in our 55+ complex inherited them when her aunt passed. Since she already had a set, I became their new proud owner. I know that I certainly can’t make the icing the icing stiff enough needed for these tips with my little hand mixer!! Since my youngest is almost 35 & lives in Australia & the closest of the other 2 is almost 400 miles away is a nurse manager at a very large hospital, as well as a clinical instructor, well let’s just say I feel lucky to see them a couple of days a year, i have REALLY wanted to take up baking & decorating cakes!! I think it would be a “sweet” use of all the extra time I have these days, which is where YOU cime in. Of all the MANY blogs & shows I have read & watched, YOURS is my favorite!! The way your recipes & directions are wrtten & the language you use make it seem like we are at the kitchen tables sharing a cup of coffee & recipes. It seems you explain anything I don’t understand, as if I just asked to to do so. Your videos are phenomenal & it is FUN to watch you work. I am trying, with your help to become a “self taught” baker & decorator. Suffice it to say YOU can teach an “older” baker (to be) new tricks!! Ha ha ha! I am absolutely in AWE of the way your site has been re-developed!! I loved.the way it was & am now “head over heels” in love with it❤. I realize this.is a LOOONG question, comment, but I promise to not make any other comments comments this week, during the giveaway. Don’t know if each comment is counted as an entry or not, however; if so just the length of this one should count exactly as 1 (one) Lol! Seriously, I will email the recipe & directions for the Italian Rum Cake as I receved it with the directions I followed. Will also comment what I think about it after learning things from you. BTW, the cake turned out almost the way I remembered it & the residents,her that were lyckt to get a slice RAVED about it!! I say lucky because I lost count of the number people that came, requesting a slice, after hearing someone raving about it.
Thank you so very much, Sally, for answering my question & for the opportunity to win a MUCH needed a stand mixer.

Hi Sheri, I’m glad you found the blog! Italian Rum cake sounds delicious! You can certainly make the frosting for the banana cake (and any other frosting) with your hand mixer – I use mine all the time! Happy baking!

Is it possible to make this as a 2 layer (instead of 3 layer) cake? Can the cream cheese frosting recipe of the banana sheet cake on your site be substituted for the brown butter cream cheese frosting?

You would have to use 2/3 of the recipe. If you don’t want to do that math you can simply make cupcakes or a third layer to freeze for later out of the extra batter! And yes, you can certainly use cream cheese frosting 🙂

Hi Rachel, I have used the namaste organic gluten free flour blend, purchased from Costco, to make other banana cake recipes with much success. I haven’t tried it on this one yet. But you just swap out the flour 1:1 ratio. good luck!!

What other frostings would you recommend for this recipe please? I adore this cake recipe and am making it for a relative’s birthday, but they are allergic to cheese so I can’t use this particular frosting. Thanks!

Hi Sally. This cake looks absolutely wonderful, as do all your recipes. I have a question about tin sizes. I’m in the UK and our standard cake tin size is 8”, whereas in the US it seems to be 9”. To avoid complicated mathematical formula, I would be happy to use the ingredient amounts you use and make cupcakes with the leftover batter. My query is: how much batter should I put in each tin, i.e. should I fill up to half or two thirds of the tin? Any help you can give me would be much appreciated.

Hi Sue! This is a great question. I recommend filling the 8-inch cake pans halfway, then using any leftover batter for cupcakes. The cupcakes take about 18-20 minutes, but I’m unsure about the exact time for the cake layers. Use a toothpick to test for doneness.

Hi Sally,
I want to bake one cake instead of three but I’m not sure about baking time, 55- 60 min or more?
Loooooove your blog and adore every single recipe of yours, you are my STAR
Best wishes
Margaret

Any tips on how to get a nicely rising cake like yours? I never seem to get quite the height you do on your cakes and cannot figure out why. I follow the directions to a T – room temperature , mixing times. My baking powder and soda aren’t brand new but no more than a few months. Does the type of cake pan (material?) make a difference? I’ve started flouring them to give the cakes something to cling to as it rises but no luck. also, how do you avoid air bubbles in the cakes. Thank you!!

Hi Haley, you can experiment with different cake pans and see if that helps. I usually give my pans a few taps on the counter to release any air bubbles before going in the oven – but I found this link which provides some helpful information: https://www.kitchenhealssoul.com/large-holes-inside-of-cake/

Hi Sally
Love your site, and I have all your books.
I just finished making this recipe and since I didn’t have 3-8″or 3-9′ pans, I used 2-9″, and 2-6″, and pleased to report the two different layer cakes are “resting” in the fridge. BTW: frosting is delicious! I can attest to the taste of the cake batter, most pleasing;) One cake is for my son’s office and one for family, which leads me to this query. How do you store a layer cake, when it specifies wrapped? Do you have a special container, or a unique wrapping technique? If so, any tips would be helpful, and appreciated.
I will give an update on cake after we cut into it.
Thanks so much.

Hi Carol! Thank you so much for making this banana layer cake! No special tricks for storing– I simply wrap an assembled/frosted layer cake loosely in plastic wrap. The frosting will stick tot he plastic wrap a little bit and that’s, unfortunately, unavoidable with tall cakes!

Hi Sally! Love this recipe! I’ve made it 3 times now and had a couple questions about the one I made recently:
1. I froze the cake layers overnight (before frosting) for the first time- I’ve never frozen cakes before. Even though I wrapped it twice in plastic wrap and then in foil, and left it on the counter to defrost without unwrapping the next morning, the cake turned extremely dense and completely lost the light/ crumbly texture of a cake. Do you know what I might’ve done wrong?
2. The colour of the cake layers was a sort of grey colour vs. your beautiful brown colour (I noticed after mashing the bananas they were grey in colour). Do you know why that might be?

Your help/ advice would be so appreciated! I can’t seem to find anything online as to what would’ve gone wrong in my cake freezing. Thanks so much in advance!!

Hi Beverly! I’m so glad you enjoy this banana cake recipe. Thank you for reporting back about it! And I’m happy to help answer your questions. So did you find that the cake that you froze was more dense than the cake you made previously (which you did not freeze)? Because the cake is going to be a little dense no matter what! I wonder if your bananas were more white than yellow? That would give your cake a beige/gray appearance. I don’t think it would have to do with freezing/thawing the cake.

Hi Sally! Thank you so much for your quick reply you are a life saver! Yes the bananas were white so that explains the color! For the freezing though, I did notice the cake I made before that I didn’t freeze was a completely different texture to the frozen one. The frozen one became very gummy and dense, there was essentially no crumb to it. Do you have any idea what I might’ve done wrong? I live in Thailand where it’s very humid, not sure if that has anything to do with it.

Hi Sally. I just received a request for a banana cake, so naturally I turned to your site!!! I am a tall cake person ( I like my cakes to be at least 4 1/2-5″ tall). I see that you make this cake in 3 layers, and that is perfect for me. Do you know if I will get a tall cake with a single recipe? Should I double for taller layers, although I wonder if the density with banana won’t rise more….Looking forward to trying this recipe and the amazing frosting that you have shown with!!!

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I’m Sally, a cookbook author, photographer, and blogger. My goal is to give you the confidence and knowledge to cook and bake from scratch while providing quality recipes and plenty of pictures. Grab a cookie, take a seat, and have fun exploring! more about Sally